This is the team I expect Celtic to field against Celtic
Boruc
Wilson Caldwell McManus Naylor
Hartley Brown Donati Naka
Jan McDonald
Am fairly sure Strachan will field the above team. McGeady playing the full ninety today indicates Hartley will start like he did in Moscow. He adds a bit more defensively and will help us keep possession though he is not the creative force which McGeady is. I could possibly see Sno playing in the middle with Brown moved out wide right but I think the above team is more likely.
This is the team I expect Celtic to field against Celtic
Boruc
Wilson Caldwell McManus Naylor
Hartley Brown Donati Naka
Jan McDonald
Am fairly sure Strachan will field the above team. McGeady playing the full ninety today indicates Hartley will start like he did in Moscow. He adds a bit more defensively and will help us keep possession though he is not the creative force which McGeady is. I could possibly see Sno playing in the middle with Brown moved out wide right but I think the above team is more likely.
That’s what I expect to see too. I don’t think Sno will play in the middle with Brown out wide because it’s important we retain possession and so it’s important that guys who are playing together continue to do so.
The only possible alterations I can see from that are:
Brown and Hartley swapping so Hartley plays in the middle and holds alongside Donati or:
We go 4-5-1 and play Hartley, Sno and Donati in the middle with Brown and Naka as wingers. Don’t see that happening though.
I hope Hargreaves is fit for Wednesday as his much acclaimed European experince will be put to the test as Lisbon will be a tough test. It will be interesting to see if Carrick and Hargreaves will play together. I would be happy if United got a draw as the away form hasnt been great in Europe.
Do Setanta not have the rights to the Champions League this year. I have checked their listings and they don’t have any matchs scheduled for this week. Will be a pity as don’t fancy listening to Jamie Redknapp and Charlie Nicholas analysing the Celtic match on $ky.
I’ve no idea what’s happening there, they bought the rights for 3 years but with the rugby world cup going on at the same time they might be struggling to find a slot or something. When that happened in the past (when GAA clashed with Formula 1 for example) they used Celtic TV instead but I’m not sure what the story is this time.
I’ve checked my sources and it’s on Setanta Sports 1 in Ireland. Setanta Sports 1 in the UK is showing something completely different at the same time.
From what I know ITV1 and ITV4 are the only other channels that are showing matches other than Sky(for this week anyway). ITV1 have the Liverpool game and ITV4 have the Chelsea game.
From what I know ITV1 and ITV4 are the only other channels that are showing matches other than Sky(for this week anyway). ITV1 have the Liverpool game and ITV4 have the Chelsea game.
Eh that’s England only.
RT, Setanta and STV are all showing matches as well.
[quote]From what I know ITV1 and ITV4 are the only other channels that are showing matches other than Sky(for this week anyway). ITV1 have the Liverpool game and ITV4 have the Chelsea game.
Eh that’s England only.
RT, Setanta and STV are all showing matches as well.[/quote]
Sorry I wasnt clear there, thats what I meant, RTE have CL both nights. I assumed that was a given.
I still cant find setanta listings with CL football?
[quote]From what I know ITV1 and ITV4 are the only other channels that are showing matches other than Sky(for this week anyway). ITV1 have the Liverpool game and ITV4 have the Chelsea game.
Eh that’s England only.
RT, Setanta and STV are all showing matches as well.[/quote]
Sorry I wasnt clear there, thats what I meant, RTE have CL both nights. I assumed that was a given.
I still cant find setanta listings with CL football?
This might be a stupid question, whats STV?[/quote]
It’s the Scottish version of UTV.
If UTV had any sense they’d take the STV feed and not the ITV feed due to the numbers of Celtic and Rangers fans in the 6 counties. They’d lose nothing down here either because the ITV games are invariably available on RT anyway. They don’t think about that stuff though.
If you just check the normal Setanta Sports 1 schedule you get the UK schedule which doesn’t have the CL. They only have rights to the CL in Ireland.
The distinction is that setanta have the Irish rights to show the CL. But with the RWC on setanta ireland they have moved their CL coverage this week to setanta 1 (for Ireland only). Sky still have one night in England exclusively to themselves while ITV have first pick on the other night with Sky then offering all the other games, besides the one ITV are showing, through their interactive service.
As for team selection, I’d go with larry’s team. Hartley in for McGeady to add a bit of steel and solidity. But there’s still a big attacking threat there too. Hopefully they can build on the performances in Milan and Moscow and not get turned over away from home yet again. A draw would be an excellent result.
Sky are also moving some games to Sky One from Sky Sports (e.g. the Huns game on Wednesday is on Sky One, not Sky Sports). The purpose of this seems to be a continuation of their battle with Virgin Media in the UK. Virgin Media customers can’t get Sky One so won’t be able to watch the game and this is an effort by Sky to get them to switch. Doesn’t affect us in Ireland because NTL does have Sky One but it does show what utter pricks Sky are. They’re not content with having people subscribe to their channels, they’re trying to ensure everyone does it through their minidish.
Monopolies are bad for business alright but sky are just using agressive means to make people sign up for digital tv through them. Not a big deal in my eyes but thats just me.
Monopolies are bad for business alright but sky are just using agressive means to make people sign up for digital tv through them. Not a big deal in my eyes but thats just me.
On the contrary Flano - monopolies are good for business. It’s the consumer they’re bad for.
Anyway it’s a big enough deal in my eyes. It’s important to separate infrastructure from the provision of services. I don’t have a problem with competition in terms of programming and rights for television broadcasts but it should be done on the basis of equal access for everyone. That’s the huge mistake Britain made with their rail privatisation. Setting up competing train companies was silly but understandable. Setting up competing railroad management companies was idiotic.
Shakhtar had a 2-1 away win at Chornomorets at the weekend, who are 9th in the Ukrainian league. Shakhtar are top and unbeaten with 25 points from 9 games (only 1 draw), 3 ahead of Dnipro and 7 ahead of Dynamo Kiev.
Srna (45 caps for Croatia where he’s first choice right back. Still only 25. Linked with Liverpool before, undoubtedly a good player)
Chigrinsky (Only 20 but he he is 6 foot 3 and has 4 caps for Ukraine and was on the Team of the Tournament in the Under 21 European Championships.)
Kucher (24 year old - 6 caps for Ukraine in the last 2 seasons)
Shevchuk (28 year old left full back. 4 caps for Ukraine)
Fernandinho (22 year old attacking midfielder from Brazil. Won an Under 20 world cup with them)
Hubschmann (26 year old with 22 caps for Czech Republic. He was a centre back with Sparta Prague but seems to have played in midfield with Shakhtar at the weekend - possibly in the role Tymoschuck used to fill).
Ilsinho (21 year old right full back or winger who signed from Sao Paolo. Got his first cap for Brazil in March and joined Shakhtar in the summer for 10m Euro!)
Jadson (23 year old Brazilian, no caps but a fair bit of top flight experience in Brazil with Atltico Paranaense)
Lucarelli (31 year old striker. 6 foot 2 and an excellent header of the ball. Could have played for bigger clubs in his career but chose his hometown team of Livorno out of political and loyalty reasons - he’s a committed socialist. 6 Italian caps. Joined Shakhtar in the summer for 9 million Euro!)
Brandao (27 year old Brazilian striker. No caps but he looked class against Celtic the last time, took a goal very well with a deft chip if I recall correctly.)
They brought on:
Gladky (20 year old Ukrainian striker with 3 caps and 1 goal. Joined Shakhtar in the summer from another Ukrainian team for 2.5m Euros)
Rat (26 year old Romanian left full back with 42 caps)
and Willian (19 year old Brazilian attacking midfielder. Played in the recent Under 20 world championships after excelling for Corinthians. Cost around 15m Euro in the summer!)
To sum up:
They’ve a young team but plenty of experience. Vast majority of them have caps, even the 20 year olds and the Brazilian lads have all represented Brazil at youth or full international level. They spent huge money on Willian, Lucarelli and Ilsinho in particular last summer. A draw out there would be an excellent result.
Good report there rocko - our scouting trip to the Ukraine on Saturday was very worthwhile. They appear to have a number of good players and excellent prospects. Castillo will probably come back in upfront too. Looking forward to it already.
[quote]Monopolies are bad for business alright but sky are just using agressive means to make people sign up for digital tv through them. Not a big deal in my eyes but thats just me.
On the contrary Flano - monopolies are good for business. It’s the consumer they’re bad for.
Anyway it’s a big enough deal in my eyes. It’s important to separate infrastructure from the provision of services. I don’t have a problem with competition in terms of programming and rights for television broadcasts but it should be done on the basis of equal access for everyone. That’s the huge mistake Britain made with their rail privatisation. Setting up competing train companies was silly but understandable. Setting up competing railroad management companies was idiotic.[/quote]
Yet again I wasnt clear, my heads all over the place today. Im running the whole show in work by myself.
I meant monopolies are bad for business as in it is impossible for a competitior to get a footing in whatever industry it may be. Of course for the company which has an industry monopolised it is good for them, which is why Sky are doing what they’re doing. It reminds me of the whole Microsoft thing.